AP-GT Courses

I dont know what school district you are in - but both my kids were in GT in Cy-Fair ISD from kindergarten all thru 12th grade. they were both in Scouts (my son earned his Eagle and my daughter her Gold Award) and both were in high school marching band. My son made a 1300 out of 1600 on his SAT and my daughter a 1200 out of 1600 on her SAT.

i found the following to be true: The students in the GT classes enjoy "being there" and pay much better attention to the teachers - thus more teaching gets accomplished and actually more classwork gets completed. My kids never really had all that much homework because they were able to finish it in class.

My rule was always do your homework as soon as you get home - before you go out to other activities. Thus, we never had that problem of worrying about getting it done.
So - if your child wants to be in the GT classes - I say definately do it.

Hi - my daughter is currently enrolled in AP/GT at Schindewolf and my son was enrolled last year. My son's experience in Science was that the regular and AP classes were routinely taught together; however, he had more activities and homework. My daught is taking all AP courses. We had the same concern that it would be too much for her (she is also in orchestra, girl scouts and softball). We kept her out of softball in the fall and discovered that the courseload was fine. She is playing softball this spring.

I would recommend the AP/GT courses because you get a different caliber of student. My son is back in regular courses (he really did not apply himself and was too lazy to make an effort) and the problems we are experiencing now all have to do with the class environment - too many kids that really do not want to be in school period so they cause havoc for teachers and other students.

My advice is if your daughter wants to take the classes - let her. Just prepare her that there will be extra work and your part includes being supportive and not badgering her about the coursework. If you want to know what they are doing, the teachers are good about posting homework and curriculum on the class websites. Give your daughter the freedom to make this choice. If she cannot handle the classes after school starts, the school will move her without penalty to her academic record.

Good Luck!!

Hi Nia-

As a former AP-GT student and teacher the one piece of advice I will give you is to only do it if your daughter has an interest in the subject matter and she enjoys being challenged and working independently. The structure of advanced classes can be tremendously enjoyable and really engage the child if it is something that interests them. If your daughter loves math and science then go for it in those subjects but if she is good at learning dates and facts for social studies but doesn't really have an interest in the subject matter let that one go. Just because she may be bright enough to do well in the class, doesn't mean it's necessarily the best place for her. I remember spending so much time in high school with my AP calculus and AP physics classes even though I had absolutely no interest in math and science at all!! It was such a waste!! On the other hand I loved my AP government and AP history courses and (surprise, surprise) I was a history/economics double major in college.

Remember too, that just because you do or do not do GT classes now, doesn't mean she has to or cannot do them in the future.

Good Luck,
K.

I don't know anything about the school you are referring to, but I was in all GT courses from 1st grade on. I remember also being told that there would be tons of homework and it would be harder when my parents left the decision up to me whether to take the courses. It really didn't seem like a lot of work to me, and I loved it. I did take 1 on-level course in high school and was bored out of my mind and irritated by how slowly the class progressed. For me the main difference was it seems like the on-level did a lot of worksheets and busy-work type of things, whereas the GT courses were more my style in being hands-on and analytical. I went to Cy-Fair school district and graduated 10 years ago, but I hear the GT courses have only gotten better since then. I think it really depends on her learning style and what will work for her. The only reason I was ever up late doing homework was because I'm a procrastinator and would wait until the last minute to write a paper or do some big project. =o)

You said you are concerned about some of the requirements, but IMO these are great foundations for the rest of her life- just like you teach your children from infancy how to treat people, etc. This is just another one of those things.